Drummakid tells us about his inspirations, life in Amsterdam and his future projects.
by
sonny(6 min reading time)

May 24, 2018

If you don’t know Drummakid, now is a good time to get to know him. The Amsterdam native gave us a chance to pick his brains and see how he works to produce his sometimes mellow, always bumping records.

My first opportunity to hear Drummakid was with his hard hitting track Dat Drip which slaps harder than your mum when you were a kid. I had go back and find more of his talent. This lead me to his first project Newk!d!nclass, which dropped in 2016. Combining that hard hitting bass-y beats previously mentioned with some mad bars, it’s a fantastic first piece. Although the whole album is pretty dope, standouts would be Zonin (which gets a shoutout below) and In the field both really epitomise how Drummakid does his thing.

I’ve managed to get into contact with Drummakid to find out more about his inspirations and creative ethic. He tells me all about growing up in Amsterdam and what he’s got planned for the future. Enjoy!

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to rack your brain! To start off, how did the name Drummakid come to be?
I started playing drums at the age of 13/14, that was my first love and I never changed that even though I started rapping later on because rap is rythm so eventually it has the same function!

What’s the story of you being based out in Amsterdam?
I was born in the Nederlands my Mom and Dad are both Ghanian. They came here for us to have a better future and couple years later Drummakid was born. Amsterdam is the capital city of the Nederlands and it was only right for me to represent the city that made me who I am today, plus they got hella good dope to smoke!

Has Amsterdam influenced your style or is it primarily other influences?
Amsterdam has influenced my style in some kinda ways though, especially music wise, because the music is so diverse. I always loved to listen to the radio station that played all types of music, which I eventually absorbed into my creative mind and applied to my own music. Another thing is the weed of course… Amsterdam made me a stoner ha! Other than that, the American culture also played a huge part in my sound. My brothers used to listen to US hip hop all the time when I was young, from Bone Thugs & Harmony to 2pac , Biggie Smalls , No Limit Soldiers. Now days it’s people like Travis Scott, Kanye West, Ronny J, Tame Impala, Coldplay, Kid Cudi who inspire me the most.

The track that put me onto you was Dat Drip and since then I’ve obviously heard more greatness (hence the reach out) in the form of HERE GOES NOTHING What track of your own do you think gives you the most pride and what was the process behind it?
I think that would be Zonin, my first official track that I had put out in 2016. I just wanted to release something for myself, so I made this song called Zonin. It’s about being by yourself sometimes just to reflect on things and come to yourself, because people get so caught up on social etc, so I felt the urge to bring this message across. I mixed the beat by myself and the amount of love I get for this track ’till today is unbelievable! I even prevented someone from committing suicide with the song. I never knew I would have so much impact on the people and ’till this day it still the most streamed track on Spotify ha!

If you could recommend someone other than yourself who needs some recognition, who would it be?
I got many artists that I definitely want to co-sign. People like Jay Way, Amartey, Digitzz.

Does anything tie these co-signs together, especially with artists like Jay Way & Amartey seeming like hidden gems?
Yeah we all know each other personally. Everybody is on their own journey and flourishing as artists but i’m definitely working on building a platform for us all to move in and create more acknowledgement.

What hard work goes into being a CEO of your own label KRUGANG?
The hard part about my job as a CEO is being a artist myself haha. It’s because I get caught up in my own vision sometimes, knowing that we got other artists who sometimes depend on you. I guess I’m not the only one who has this problem and I’m working on it! I truly believe that I was put in this position for a reason and thats why I got a partnership with Andrew Pinas. He keeps me sharp on these things whilst also arranging the business side of the label and I am obligated to the creative par. So thats me, trying to put the artist in a much better position musically and trying to figure out how you want yourself to be presented as an artist. Those are the main things that I focus on, the rest is upon the artist itself – I’m not here to say what you must do, I just wanna add onto your vision and facilitate.

It sounds like you and Andrew are kind of the Ying and Yang to the artists that you’re both supporting, correct?Support to new artists is a must, especially from their label and it sounds like you both have the right strategy to nurture talent.
Yeah true that! Andrew is the main guy who makes the vision a reality by setting everything up, how it fits the artist best. I’m the creative thinker who tries to get real quality music out of the artists by producing or writing songs with the artist. They build a work ethic for themselves to feed off and making sure the music fits their personality of course. Other than that, I feel like you always gotta keep your eyes open for the next best, even being an artist myself, it pushes me to go harder. Imagine your whole team being super talented with your guidance …nuff said.

Shameless plug time now, what is the next up for Drummakid?
Next thing for Drummakid is YUNG DADA SEASON. I’m working on a few projects, one of them is an Afro project which is next up and i’m currently in Ghana setting a few thing up for the project.

All I can say about this project is GET FUCKING READY FOR YUNG DADA

An Afro project from yourself sounds dope! What is YUNG DADA going to represent, will it include a shout out to your African, and more specifically, Ghanian routes?
I cant say much about the project yet but it will definitely be something else compared to Drummakid songs. I think this tape is a mix between the European culture and the African Culture, lots of afro sounds and good vibes representing different cultural views. Got enough songs to make people realise that I did not came to play this time! Also i’m about to release a new record soon and one thing is for sure…